Essendon great plans another Long Walk

Some 15 years after he marched on Canberra to raise awareness of Indigenous suffering and met with the Howard government, Essendon great and Indigenous campaigner Michael Long is planning another "Long Walk", saying that the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians is widening.

Long said Indigenous culture was "dying" and that it was time to keep Indigenous issues "alive" in the hearts and minds of Australians and especially politicians.

Michael Long on the Long Walk in 2004.Credit:AAP

He was speaking at the "Long Lunch" that precedes Saturday's annual walk to the MCG from Federation Square prior to the Richmond-Essendon "Dreamtime" game.

"Maybe it's time for another Long Walk, on the 15th anniversary, to keep these issues alive in the minds, in the hearts of all Australians, especially our politicians," Long told the audience at Crown's Palladium room.

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"I'll ask people today to join us, in 2019. I call on the AFL, Tanya [Hosch, AFL diversity manager]. I call on our players, our supporters, across Australia, Australia's Aboriginal people, please join us this year ... please join us in 2019, join the Long Walk, walk with us, walk with those elders, for the oldest living culture in the world is dying.

"And we're all responsible. Have we done enough? Closing the gap of life expectancy between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and non-Indigenous is widening, rather than closing.

"In 2019, the Parliament, the Prime Minister acknowledged that the target is not on track. Why, we ask?"

Long later told The Age that football had "played an integral role" in raising awareness of Indigenous issues and that this year's Long Walk - which was still being discussed with Leanne Brooke, the Essendon executive who manages it - might not be to Canberra.

"It might be the other way, yeah," he said, when asked if his march would be to Canberra, as it was in 2004. "We'd prefer to take it to the people, rather than the politicians. But we'd love a bipartisan approach with both governments and how we can put back Indigenous lives on the national agenda. Obviously, the reports we've seen ... why [it was done] in the first place was to put that back in eyes and minds and the hearts of people."

During the function, Long's daughter Michaela told the gathering about her father's impact on her, remembering that he had received death threats in 1995 after speaking out against racial abuse, while her father invited the original "Long Walkers" up on to the stage.

One of the walkers, Media Monitors boss Peter Maher, recalled how police had asked that the walk be stopped because of the death threats, and that Long had told them to keep going.

"We've obviously been talking about doing the Long Walk for a few years now. We didn't do in our 10th year but this year was the perfect time," Long told The Age.